The Life and Times of The Muddler
by tewwificathlete
Summary: The Muddler looks back on his life, from the loss of his parents to the start of his personal travels. ((This is my first ever fanfiction, so please give me some constructive feedback!)) (Other Genres: Adventure, more to be added)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**((Author's Note: I wrote this fanfiction mostly because I noticed that not many people had written The Muddler into anything. Personally, I think the character would be neat to explore, so I decided to write a backstory for him! I also added some personality to The Fuzzy, seeing how it seems like she was just written in to make an excuse for Sniff being born the way he is, and expanded on the reason why it seems like Sniff hadn't been raised in his own home. I hope you enjoy this story that I wrote, and if you don't, tell me why in the reviews. Thanks for reading in the meantime!)**

It was a cold winter day in Moominvalley, with snow covering nearly everything visible to the sky. Most of the inhabitants were sleeping, and had been for several weeks now, as they did not wish to go out in such frigid conditions. A few were awake, however, such as Too-Ticky, who enjoyed the winter and preferred its conditions to build in. And, of course, Snufkin was away traveling for the winter, so he does not need to be spoken of much at the moment. However, while the majority was sleeping, Too-ticky was building, and the others were doing what they do during the winter, a single man stepped into the edge of the land's border, a foreigner with an important reason for going so many miles from his home to here.

His name was The Muddler.

The Muddler was wearing one of his sets of normal attire, with no minding of whether or not it was fit for the chill in the air; a green shirt that had fallen apart beyond repair, so he had to cover it up at all times: a blue coat going over the shirt that was slowly getting more and more tattered, yet he refused to get rid of it; an orange scarf with several patches holding it together and a pin going through it; a light grey pair of pants with anonymous stains on it with varying origins; a pair of toe socks covering his feet that were quite thin and strangely not covered by any shoes; and finally, to complete the battered arrangement of clothing, a "stainless" steel pot on his head which had actually managed to be stained somehow. The outfit kept him at least slightly warm, but not truly warm enough, as he was still breathing on his hands and rubbing them together attempting to keep himself at a half-decent temperature. He is quite aware that it's a miracle that he made it all the way to Moominvalley by foot.

While standing in the snow, The Muddler tried to look back to the moment in which he started the journey to here, but his mind slipped. Instead, he went all the way back to the start of his first adventure. Instead of trying to go back to his planned memory, he closed his eyes and let the memories flow, no matter how bad they were.

And flow they did.


	2. Chapter 1: A Firm Shaking

**Chapter 1**

**A Firm Shaking**

The Muddler remembered once living in a small and quiet town. Nothing truly bad happened, but then again, nothing interesting happened either. There were only a few times where he had gotten in trouble (all of them involving stealing from people poorer than them, as they were quite wealthy), but after a few times of simply having his luxuries taken away, he was given a spanking from his mother and he never got in trouble again. This humble life was boring, but at the time, he didn't know much about how his life could be more interesting.

Then one day, when The Muddler was about 8 years old, his father just so happened to have left a book with a green cover on the kitchen table. At the time, the young boy was reading small books, about 50 pages long, but the book interested him, so he grabbed it off the table and began to read. As soon as he saw the first page, he knew he wasn't going to understand much of it, but he kept on reading.

As The Muddler went on, he may have not understood some of the words, but he got an adventurous vibe from it. He hadn't known it fully at the time, but the book described activities such as exploring new lands and finding new things. The boy was amazed by this, and wanted to go on adventures like the people in the book did. For a time, he was quite saddened with his bland life in the small town.

Little did The Muddler know that he would soon go on an adventure of his own.

However, it would not be of the happy sort.

##########

It was the season of spring cleaning and getting everything sorted up, and of course everyone was busy. The children were helping too, only a bit more half-heartedly. The only exception among the children was The Muddler, who was scuttering around the town, looking for buttons. He had taken up button collecting as a hobby, and by that day he had collected 10 of them. While looking around, he suddenly encountered a very large button in the middle of the road. He was confused about this, muttering to himself, "Who would leave that in the middle of the road and never find it?", but picked it up anyway, storing this one in both of his tiny hands. He was about to keep going, but suddenly he felt a very firm shaking from the ground.

Everyone else noticed it too, and as it kept going, people started running around screaming, as they didn't know what to actually do in this situation. One of the children even started crying, and his mother attempted to comfort the child with no avail. The Muddler's first reaction to this situation was to find his parents. They had helped him in tough situations before, so why not now?

The Muddler quickly started running, and called out, "Mother! Father! Where are you?!" As he did so, a large crack appeared in the ground, which luckily he happened to be far away from at the time. There were those, however, who weren't so lucky, quickly causing the first casualties of the shaking. Soon, there would be more.

Cracks soon appeared all over town, with more and more people falling in. The Muddler, of course, was absolutely terrified. He kept on calling out for his mother and father, his cries getting more and more desperate. Yet he wouldn't reduce to tears. He was determined to get to his parents, and it seemed stupid to stop and cry. They would help him out of this broken town, and they might go on adventures like the people in that book he read!

Finally, the firm shaking reduced to a soft rumble. It didn't stop, though. It had 2 more people to take away, then it would be finished. Just 2 more.

The Muddler looked around and finally found his parents. They looked just as desperate as he did. When they both saw each other, they burst into tears of joy, and they ran towards each other.

Just as they did that, though, a crack opened up in the area where The Muddler's parents were, and they quickly fell in, with the din of horrified screams filling the air. Right then, the shaking stopped completely, and everything was silent for a moment.

The shaking had done what it needed to do.

Quickly, The Muddler ran to the gap. He looked in and saw what his parents had become. His face turned as white as a blank sheet of paper, and his tears of joy became tears of absolute sorrow. The silence turned into the sound of heavy sobs, and the boy curled up and cried to himself. He was the only person remaining in the town.

Eventually, the night came, and led The Muddler to sleep. No one would disrupt him, no one would move him. Not yet, anyway.

###########

During the night, a person walked into town, turning the population from 1 to 2. His name was Hodgkins, and he happened to be The Muddler's uncle. He came here to come visit his brother and talk about his latest adventures. However, as you've already seen, he has come much too late for any chatting.

Just like his nephew, Hodgkins was terrified by all the cracks in the road. He knew instantly what had happened to his brother. He would not cry right now though, as he had just spotted his nephew on one of the remaining patches of land. Besides, he was a grown-up, and in his opinion, grown-ups don't just burst into tears. He tip-toed across the patches of land and went towards The Muddler.

As soon as Hodgkins had reached The Muddler, he picked the boy up in his arms and once again tip-toed until he was back to safety. Then he walked away, whispering to his nephew, "I'm so sorry. You're safe now."


End file.
